The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) said that TransAsia Airways pilots flying Airbus A320 and Airbus A330 aircraft must undergo retraining before the end of June.
Earlier this year, the CAA had asked the airline’s pilots operating ATR aircraft to be retrained following two ATR 72 aircraft crashes, in July last year and February this year.
CAA statistics show that 55 of the airline’s pilots passed an oral test to determine their capability to fly ATR aircraft. Among them, 53 were later flown to Bangkok to take tests on an ATR flight simulator.
Two other pilots, on the other hand, are in the process of upgrading their skills from operating ATR 500 aircraft to ATR 600 aircraft.
Yu Yi-shi (喻宜式), deputy director of the CAA’s flight standards division, said that the administration had completed the second stage of training for the airline’s ATR 500 and ATR 600 pilots.
He said that four of the 53 were determined to be in need of more flight training.
“They [the four pilots] retook the test on a flight simulator after more training. One of them failed the test again,” Yu said, adding that the airline has stopped giving flight assignments to the pilot.
According to the CAA, the pilot who failed the test on a flight simulator has eight years of flying experience, with 8,000 flight hours.
TransAsia’s Airbus A320 and Airbus A330 pilots are to be retrained as well, the CAA said.
Pilots will need to pass an oral test and a flight simulator test to continue flying, the CAA said.
The airline has 67 pilots operating Airbus A320 aircraft and 26 operating Airbus A330 aircraft, it said.
The oral tests are to be administered by CAA flight trainers. Pilots operating Airbus A320 aircraft are to be sent to Bangkok to take the flight simulation test if they pass the oral test, whereas those flying Airbus A330 aircraft are to be tested using a flight simulator provided by China Airlines.
CAA Director-General Lin Tyh-ming (林志明) said that retraining the TransAsia pilots had caused the airline to reduce its number of domestic flights.
As there is expected to be greater demand for flights during the four-day Tomb Sweeping Day long weekend beginning on Friday, Lin has instigated several backup plans.
They include increasing flights provided by other airlines, using larger aircraft and requesting the military deploy C-130 Hercules transport aircraft.
The Marine and Port Bureau would coordinate by increasing shipping services, Lin said.
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